The movie trailer for the highly anticipated adaptation of E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Greyhas been released. You can see the movie trailer below:

Fifty Shades of Grey became the biggest selling book on Amazon.co.uk of all time, with Fifty Shades Freed and Fifty Shades Darker taking second and third place. Why is Fifty Shades of Grey so popular given the critics have slated the book for poor writing and a lack of plot? Well, sex sells! (see article here at the Huffington Post). It seems that the movie trailer has become the most viewed movie trailer of 2014 within just a matter of days. Within the first week of release, there have been over 36 million YouTube views! (see article here at the Hollywood Reporter).

How have people reacted to the movie trailer?

It’s been a mixed bag. I think that the best analogy to describe people’s reactions to the Fifty Shades of Grey trailer is this: You’ll either love or hate the movie trailer.

Some of the Fans loved the trailer –>

On the one hand, some fans seem to be enjoying the Fifty Shades of Grey trailer.

Fifty Shades of Grey appears to have gone down well on Buzzfeed(see articles here and here). The first article essentially shows almost all of the “erotic” content in the movie in gifs. I use erotic in inverted commas because if you didn’t know that Fifty Shades of Grey was an erotic novel, you may not guess it from the movie trailer, except for one or two gifs (see below). I guess the first article really shows the romance between Christian and Anna, plus a minor amount of their kinky bedroom antics.

The second article includes 50 thoughts that Virgin Mobile had while watching the Fifty Shades of Grey trailer. Some of the thoughts are pretty random, but most of them gush about Christian or the “erotic” content in the trailer being amazing.

I think the best fan reaction to Fifty Shades of Grey is a YouTube review by NuttyMadam. You can watch her reaction below:

I think that it is safe to say that some fans have reacted positively to the Fifty Shades of Grey trailer. When I say positively though, I don’t just mean they think the trailer fits with the book. Since the release of the Fifty Shades of Grey movie trailer, there has also been a 53% increase in online searchers for sex toys (see article here at Glamour Magazine). Cringe!

The Critics and Fans who hate the trailer –>

On the other hand, the critics and some of the fans seem to hate the Fifty Shades of Grey trailer. There does seem to be two reasons for hating the trailer.

First, the sexual content in the movie trailer is LIGHT! According to an article written by Christopher Hooton for the Independent (see here), the movie adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey will be less explicit than the book. Michael De Luca, the producer, is quoted as saying:

“The film can’t be as explicit as the book…A picture is worth 1,000 words. So to be erotic on screen means I think an image is going to have way more power than reading the words on a page.”

I’m not sure that De Luca is right there. The fans of Fifty Shades of Grey are expecting explicit content in the movie. I mean the explicit content in the book – the graphic descriptions of the sex between Chrsitan and Anna – are what the fans like about the book and want in the movie. Indeed, TMZ interviewed members of a BDSM club called The Threshold Society in L.A. and they were left wondering where the BDSM content actually is. The Threshold’s coporate secretary explained that the Grey is pretty “vanilla” and the BDSM content is light. She said that there needs to be more light bondage, caning etc… (see article here at TMZ). There was also an article published in the Mirror that included 8 alternative movie trailers that may actually get the viewers pulses racing unlike the Fifty Shades of Grey trailer (see here). I have to say that I agree with the articles inclusion of Jennifer Aniston’s raunchy dance in We’re the Millers (2013). You can see this scene below:

Second, some fans are concerned with the message that the movie (movie trailer and book series) sends to the younger generations. De Luca suggests that while much of the explicit sexual content is removed from the movie, you are left with an “intense and erotic love story”. I certainly don’t think that’s true. Fifty Shades of Grey certainly doesn’t tell a love story, and I think that it’s wrong for the movie makers to advertise the movie adaptation as a love story. What are we teaching the younger generation about what a love story constitutes? I don’t think that we should teach the younger generations that true love is what happens in fairy tales (i.e., love at first sight, man rescuing a woman etc…), but neither should we teach the younger generations that true love involves abuse, whether that be mental or physical abuse. I am not alone in this sentiment either. If you look at the comments on both of the Buzzfeed articles that I included earlier, the comments show some people’s disgust that Fifty Shades of Grey is being adapted into a movie given the “hyper-controlling,emotionally manipulative sadist[ic]” content (Shaina Higgins, see comment here). There are also blog articles written about the inappropriate message that Fifty Shades of Grey is sending (see here). I appreciate that a small minority of people might desire this type of “love” story, but should we be romanticizing this kind of relationship for young people? Would you want your children to be in a relationship with Christian Grey? I certainly wouldn’t.

I’ve been following news related to the upcoming movie adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey. I’m not a fan of the book and in my review of Fifty Shades of Grey, my final verdict was: “The only reason for reading this book is the sex. If you want to read a porno then read this book.”

I assumed that the only reason for watching the movie would be the sex too. It seems maybe I was wrong. According to The Guardian, the footage of Fifty Shades of Grey shown at the annual CinemaCon event in Las Vegas on the 25th March 2014 was “tame”. The controversial book is well known for making it’s readers hot under the collar, yet attendees who watched the footage from the movie were left disappointed. In The Guardian news story, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and The Wrap, say that the footage was more about the courting that occurs between Christian and Ana, with lots of PG kissing and making “moon-eyes” at each other. There were glimpses of a whip, the red room, and Christian grey admitting that his “tastes are very singular,” but the rest was left to the audience’s imagination.

The conclusion? The footage released at the 2014 CinemaCon event suggests there will be little erotica in the movie adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey. I do wonder what the point of seeing the movie is? Putting the erotic content aside, what else is there to the plot of Fifty Shades of Grey?Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope left for fans of Fifty Shades of Grey. Eric Eisenberg from Cinema Blend is quoted in the Belfast Telegraph as saying, “While the movie promises to be filled with all kinds of taboo carnal relations, what was shown in the clips was very PG-rated (they didn’t even mention the word ‘sex’). Of course, there was plenty of innuendo and suggestion of Christian Grey’s habits behind locked doors, but none of it was explicitly shown.”

“What was new was the fact that, despite my heart doing its fight-or-flight, help-we’re-prey-and-HEY-STUPID-THAT’S-A-VAMPIRE number, I was glad to see him. Ridiculous but true. Scary but true.” Sunshine, Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Final Verdict: You might want to start reading this book at the weekend, so you have time to blow everything off and find out what happens.